'Ask GamerDad' answers parents' video game questions

Today's parents grew up playing video games, and many look forward to playing games with their kids. The new 'Ask GamerDad' column on the video game guide site What They Play gives parents advice from an avid gamer's point of view.

Video games have been around long enough now that we can see a new trend developing--gamer parents. These parents have been playing games themselves for years, and look forward to playing games with their kids as a way to spend time together as a family.

The new "Ask GamerDad" column on the video game guide side What They Play brings this perspective to video game reviews and advice. Whether or not you are a gamer parent yourself, this point of view can be another useful resource when considering games for your kids.

In this week's column, "Gamer Dad" Andrew Bub talks about video games as fitness tools, drawing on his own experience of losing 30 pounds over four years by playing Dance Dance Revolution every day. This activity more than just "play" for Bub, as he relied on this weight loss to help him survive a heart attack at age 36.

The fitness options are expanding with family-oriented games such as Wii Sports and Wii Fit, which has been a big hit in Japan will be released in the United States in mid-May. I believe that a virtual sport should never replace 'real-world' family interactions. Even so, parents who are not major gamers themselves may embrace some of these new activities as a wholesome, and possibly healthy, opportunity to play with their kids.